A column oriented RDBMS is a DBMS that stores data tables as sections of columns of data, rather than as rows of data. During query execution in a column oriented RDBMS, it is often necessary to stitch together multiple columns of a record. Some of the columns are added to intermediate results during the query execution. This process is called materialization. How columns are materialized is an important factor in determining query performance in a column oriented RDBMS. Existing column oriented RDBMSs typically employ either fixed early materialization or fixed late materialization. In early materialization, columns referenced in a query are fetched at the leaf nodes of an operator graph and they are transmitted from a child operator to a parent operator if required by up-stream operators. In late materialization, columns needed by an operator are fetched from their sources just before processing and discarded afterwards. For most column oriented RDBMSs, the column materialization strategy is hard coded.